Trader Joe’s Handcrafted Cheese & Green Chile Tamales Review

Tamales are an essential Mesoamerican dish that can be traced all the way back to 8,000 BCE. The Incans, Mayans, and Aztecs used this dish in a number of rituals, and they also enjoyed tamales at fiestas. Today, you can store this ancient dish in your freezer thanks to Trader Joe’s Handcrafted Cheese & Green Chile Tamales.

Traditionally, tamales are steamed, but it’s actually possible to heat these tamales up in the microwave. Unless you’re used to steaming food in the oven, this is the method that we recommend. It’s virtually effortless, and even though our tamales were a little bit messy when we pulled them out, they were heated perfectly.

If you’ve never had tamales before, you should know that the corn husk isn’t designed to be eaten. It’s a container that helps the tamales cook. Once your tamales are fully heated, you’ll want to peel the husk off before you dig in.

These tamales are pretty simple, but they’re absolutely delicious. The gooey blend of cheese and green chilies is both spicy and creamy; we wanted to savor every single bite. Trader Joe’s isn’t stingy with their Monterrey Jack cheese. Our tamales were stuffed full of it!

These tamales aren’t just wrapped in a corn husk as it heats — that wasn’t enough corn for these tamales. The shells are also made from corn masa flour. They’re soft and slightly squishy, and they taste strongly of corn — these shells are slightly sweet and reminiscent of cornbread, which is a wonderful complement to the other flavors at play in this dish.

Making tamales is complicated and time-consuming if you prepare everything from scratch. Trader Joe’s Handcrafted Cheese & Green Chile Tamales, however, make it easy to enjoy these treats at home. If you’re craving tamales, or if you’d like to try tamales for the first time, you should pick up one of these packages the next time you’re at Trader Joe’s.

To learn more about the nutrition content ingredients, or cooking instructions for these Trader Joe’s tamales, check out our package scan below.